


salvageable (the safe inside my armor remix)

by navaan



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Aftermath, Angst, Friendship/Love, M/M, Past Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Past Relationship(s), Pining, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Remix
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-25
Updated: 2017-02-25
Packaged: 2018-09-26 18:03:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9914561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/navaan/pseuds/navaan
Summary: Tony's life changes and changes again. He's used to the cycle of having friends and finding himself alone.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kdm103020](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kdm103020/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Stripped](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9396002) by [kdm103020](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kdm103020/pseuds/kdm103020). 
  * In response to a prompt by [kdm103020](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kdm103020/pseuds/kdm103020) in the [Cap_Ironman_Remix_Madness_2017](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/Cap_Ironman_Remix_Madness_2017) collection. 



> **Prompt:**
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> 1) You can find my work [here](http://archiveofourown.org/users/kdm103020/works).    
> 2) MCU  
> 3) This is the first fic I've posted to A03, so remix away!

His armor had already been banged up, before Thor pulled the mask from it. Tony couldn't even remember that part. What he did remember was Steve's half smile and relief washing over his face when Tony woke up.

“You might want to throw me that little black tool,” Tony told him. Captain America had wandered into the workshop after him and was watching the bots pushing and pulling and getting nowhere. 

“Stuck?” Steve asked and smiled.

“Had worse,” Tony shot back. He wasn't sure when they went from snarling to friendly in the course of one day, but it felt right.

“I could help pull that off,” Steve offered, handing him the tool. He was looking at the bots with a bit of bemused worry. 

“We haven't known each other long enough for you to offer undressing me, Cap.”

“Do you always do this alone?”

“It's not usually this much of a hassle,” he pointed out and the chest plate came free finally and then the rest was easy. He stepped out of the bits and pieces of armor, while the bots started to sort what was salvageable and Tony wondered if he wouldn't be better off building up from the ground again. He already had an idea for at least three necessary enhancements. 

“Are you alright?” Steve looked him up and down. “Not hurt?”

He rolled his shoulders, hoped it looked more casual than it felt, because his body was beginning to demand he stop all the being banged around now and fall over. “Banged up,” he admitted, when he realized that he'd winced.

“Yeah,” Cap said. “Me too. You wanted food?” He motioned for the door. “The team is waiting.”

The team. Suddenly, they really were the Avengers.

Huh. Figure that.

Steve clapped him on the shoulder. “I'm glad you're okay. The Avengers need you.”

* * *

Together with Rhodey he made sure the president was received by agents, but Tony felt glad when he could finally just sit down. Pepper had fallen asleep as soon as they'd boarded Tony's private jet. After what she'd been through she was really out of it and still scared and who could blame her? But he could fix this. He could.

From now on everything would be different. 

His phone rang and he was of half a mind to just shut it off. Then he really looked at it. “Cap?” he asked, watching Pepper for any sign of waking. She didn't stir. 

“You're okay?”

When Pepper had asked him, he'd said: “Things will never be okay.” But this was Steve Rogers calling him to ask, like he cared. _Captain America_ wanted to know. And Tony had bruises all over and his wrists were black and blue from having been restrained and there was blood on his face, not all of it his own, but at least he hadn't dreamed of Chitauri and space and alien invasions for one night. That was what it meant to be okay, probably. “I think so. Yes, yes, I'm okay.” 

A huff. “Good, I... Good. I thought you were dead... They said you were dead. On the news and then... Good. We need you, you know?” 

Tony wasn't sure he knew, but he was on his way back to see Banner in the Tower -- because suddenly he had nowhere else to live than New York --, but the thought made his insides feel mushy and warm.

He realized he was supposed to say something to that, but he couldn't think of anything.

“Natasha sends her best,” Steve said, “and she hopes we get to hear the whole story.” 

He was too tired to give Steve the whole run-down now, but whispered a quick summary of some of the bullet points.

“Don't rile up Banner, while you're there,” Steve said and sounded amused. “I'd like to have a chance to come back to Brooklyn sometime.”

“Don't be a stranger,” Tony said and ended the call, feeling much better about life suddenly.

* * *

By the time three Helicarriers went down over Washington, Tony had already known something was going down. He'd started prepping the new Quinjet and kept an eye on the situation in New York. Bruce was asking for updates every hour and he had so far managed to keep him calm.

When Jarvis informed him of an incoming call he looked up: “Anyone important? Why isn't this going to voice mail like all the other calls?”

“It's Captain Rogers, sir.”

“Is it?” He was surprised to say the least. He had yet to find a trace of Steve in the mess left by SHIELD's collapse and HYDRA's rise and fall. 

“Tony?”

“Steve? Where are you? Fighting old enemies with nothing but a shield.”

“Hospital,” was the quick reply. “Tony, I need you.”

Voice caught in his throat, guilty thoughts straying to Pepper who was in Europe right now and who had been nervous and easily agitated since their recent misadventures. His throat was suddenly dry and he knew he wasn't supposed to be Iron Man any more, but he said: “Where do you need me?”

“Washington. Suit up.”

“Alright, anything else?”

“I'm in a hospital, so you'll have to get me first. And...”

“Okay. And...?”

“I might have to take you up on that offer to stay at the Tower.”

* * *

His life changed dramatically after that. Between him and Pepper there had always been set rapport. She had known him well long before they'd tried to be more too each other - and recently he wasn't sure how well that was going. She disapproved of his stepping up for the Hydra hunting job and she disapproved even more that it included more than just tech support and playing landlord to a bunch of superheroes. She wanted normal and not to relive her nightmares. He wanted her to have that.

He tried to cope with her current absence the same way he always did: by throwing himself into work. 

Just... It wasn't that easy when people insisted on making sure he was fine after Iron Man had been the main target when the Avengers had swooped down on a Hydra base today.

“Does that hurt?” Natasha jabbed the bruise on his cheek with a wet cloth.

“Not until someone pokes it?”

“Here,” Steve sat a glass of orange juice down at his arm and Tony stared at it. He hadn't said anything, hadn't ask for anything. 

“Thanks,” he said instead of starting an argument. “I'll be down in the workshop,” and tried to get up.

“After the post-mission meeting.” Steve pushed him down again.

It kept on going like that. When he worked late hours someone would appear to ask him what he was working on. Hawkeye of all people brought him sandwiches. Steve made sure he had water. It was weirdly... not annoying.

He'd never realized how lonely he was until a man in a cave had saved his life. He had never realized how lonely he was until people started to poke at every little thing he did.

* * *

Life was complicated. After Ultron he tried to move on, past his own instincts that made him go too far. “You'll miss me,” he'd told Steve and had half-feared that it would be the other way around.

And now – after knowing the truth about his parent's deaths, his cheek throbbing with pain, his ribs hurting and the damn armor not coming off, locked in place by the perfect dent left by a famous Vibranium shield – he was already missing Steve. He'd longed for his friendship, but had not trusted it last. It was his only saving grace now.

Pepper had told him before they'd decided to take their break, that this was at the core of his problems – that he loved but never fully trusted. He only followed his own counsel. 

He'd argued with Natasha before he'd followed his own hunches and now he was truly alone. And stuck.

He let himself fall back on the floor and lay there like an overgrown turtle that couldn't get back to its feet. The armor used to make him feel safe. Now he felt like all his arrogance, his anger, his confidence had been stripped from him and the thing that was keeping him safe was dragging him down.

He hadn't really known what to do with Steve or the team when they had been around him, but now that he was alone he was feeling the absence.

“I miss you,” he told the room.

He stared at the ceiling of the Avengers compound workshop he had never really used before. Nobody was here to insist that he needed to be in medical, that cracked ribs required x-rays and tending and rest. Nobody was here to ask him if he'd had enough to drink. He remembered how to solve his problems alone. 

With some effort, he sat up, reached for a screwdriver and instructed the bots.

Parts of himself had always been broken, but that didn't mean he couldn't function. He had a life to move on with and wounds to lick and pretty, angry blue eyes to forget. It was not in his nature to just give up. 

He had a drink to get to.


End file.
